The paper is a biblical-theological study that attempts to describe social groups which can be regarded as the poor in the light of teaching of Jesus . The study is based on the following biblical texts: Mk 1:15; cf . Mt 4:17; Lu 4:43, then Lk 4:18-19, Lk 6:20 and Mt 5:3 and several others. The poor of the Gospels are the first recipients of the kingdom of God. According to the author the evangelical poor have many different faces and also poverty has many dimensions. The first of all is the material lack and need. There are many other categories of poor people, for example those excluded from their social and religious position: widows and children, the little ones, am ha’aretz. Another category of the poor are the sick and suffering, sinners and the outlawed, men with an unclean spirit. All those people were the recipients and bene-ficiaries of the kingdom of God to come.
The main task of the paper is to analyse pope Benedict XVI’s social teaching on poverty as introduced in the encyclical letter ‘Caritas in veritate’. While the methodo-logical language of the papal teaching is anthropological and theological in character, the document uses its own interdisciplinary approach that is characteristic of Catholic Social Teaching. Consequently such a Christian reflection on social issues like pover-ty, inequality, marginalisation and globalisation can be compared with other social fin-dings. In the global context the pope identifies growing economic inequalities but also the advantages of cooperation within the global economy. The analysis also discerns the theories of social development that are convergent with the papal social diagnosis. Finally, comparing the pope’s social teaching with some studies in economy, sociolo-gy and political sciences, the author of the paper examines the possibility to construct an interdisciplinary link between Catholic Social Teaching and other social sciences.
The article discusses the category of the option for the poor, by answering four key questions: 1) What is the option for the poor?; 2) Who are the poor?; 3) Why the option for the poor?; 4) How to opt? The category of the option for the poor emerged in Latin America at the turn of the 60s and 70s of the twentieth century, as the fruit of an audit of faith and the personal, communitarian, social and ecclesial life . The author defines the category according to the teaching of the bishops (Medellin and Puebla), to John Paul II and Latin-American theologians . He highlights the need for clarifying the meaning of poverty and the poor, specifically of the current theological understanding of these concepts . He then describes main theological reasons of the option for the poor: God’s plan of salvation; the theology of creation; human dignity; the mystery of sin; the phenomenon of poverty as a place of proving the fundamental statements about God and Jesus Christ; an ecclesiological significance of the option for the poor. In the last part of the paper the author quotes the Polish translation of the so-called The Pact of St. Domitilla Catacombs, which illustrates one of more promising ways of implementing that option in both personal and ecclesial life.
The Christian laity is called to the ministry of evangelization in the Church and for the Church. In this work, basic ecclesial communities play an important role, because they are forming disciples of Christ and preparing them to bear testimony to the Gos-pel in the world. The communities have been initiated in the Church of South America and are centres of evangelization as a true expression of ecclesial communion (ChL no. 26). They also express the preferential option of the Church for the poor, because they are often created by people deprived of fair access to material goods and live on the margins of society. In the activities of basic ecclesial communities, the poor evan-gelize themselves first, feeding on the Word of God, to make it a source of inspiration for life and action. At that time, the poor are becoming subjects of evangelization, when they recognize the proclamation of the Good News of salvation as their task, not only with words but also through the testimony of life. The transmission of the Gospel occurs in interpersonal encounters in which the attitude of believers in Christ urges people to adopt Christian values and imbue in them the culture created by them.
The article is an interpretation of the teaching of Pope Francis on „the joy of the Gospel”. An analysis of the Exhortation Evangelii gaudium has led to the conclusion that the joy of the Gospel according to Francis is a Christian virtue. Traditional the-ology distinguishes two categories of virtues: theological and cardinal. Benedict XVI points out to a new group of virtues: ecclesial ones. According to Francis the basis of this joy is the adoption and proclamation of the Gospel. Its source is the person of Jesus Christ. Through the union with Him, the human person is liberated from alien-ation, selfishness and slavery. The joy of the Gospel is being revealed in the dialogue which is an exchange of gifts between individual persons. It takes place in an en-counter which gives an opportunity to know one another, God and man. The ecclesial context of joy is presented in the personal opening to Christ and in the opening of the Church to all people. Christian joy, based on Pope Francis’ concept of the joy of the Gospel, can be qualified as one of the ecclesial virtues.
25 years after the political transformation in Poland the time has come to assess the reforms and attitudes of entrepreneurs . The role of business leaders turns out to be particularly important in the creation of common good, inclusive of workplaces created by them and an active fight against poverty. On the basis of the most recent social documents of the Catholic Church, the author of the article considers an influence of the globalization and financialisation on the conditions in which Polish entrepreneurs function. For Christian business leaders particularly important are those fundamental and practical principles of business which emerge from the human dignity, common good as well as from such principles as justice and subsidiarity. In the current context knowledge should be combined with spirituality so that those principles can be put into practice. The spirituality of St . Ignatius has always been open to this. The author then points to the activity of those young Christian business leaders in Poland who search for an inspiration in the books of Chris Lowney.
Pope Francis often speaks about the new evangelization. He notices areas that need a special care of the Church. One of them is the problem of poverty. The Pope encou-rages all the faithful to engage in the transformation of this situation . It can be called a “throwaway culture” and a sign of real poverty of the whole society when people remain indifferent to the cause of the poor. It is one of the negative consequences of the culture of prosperity. The Pope also calls it a “globalisation of indifference” and calls on all people of the three states in the Church to care for those who are poor and abandoned and to act against poverty. In a particular way Francis addresses his appeal to the consecrated persons, encouraging them to contemplate the poor Jesus, to the consecration of their lives through a faithful fulfilment of their vow of poverty and to the apostolate among the poor and the marginalized . By means of such an attitude of men and women religious they would contribute to their own sanctification, to bearing witness to love to the poor before the world and at least partly they will help those in need among whom they live and serve.
This paper focuses on three issues. First, it is about the context and environment of pre-Nicene theology. It is emphasized that pre-Nicene theology did not neglect ca-techetical and liturgical reflection (ad intra) while at the same time successfully ente-red into a critical and creative dialogue with both the Semitic and Greco-Roman world where first Christians lived (ad extra). For contemporary theology its means that it cannot reject historical reasoning, placed in space and time. The second part stresses that, in spite of different situations and all historical and cultural contexts, theology before Nicea was above all an understanding of Sacred Scripture to which the key is the Risen Christ as the source and definitive fulfilment of the inspired writings. Finally, the third part of the paper focuses on the existential and spiritual experience from which pre-Nicene theology originated. For this theology the Gospel of Christ is not just the rule of faith but also the rule of life. This leads to a conclusion that a contem-porary theologian is a to take up an existential-personalistic reflection on Revelation using the historical-hermeneutic method .
The paper explains how both Eastern and Western bishops attempted to preserve the doctrine expressed in the Nicene Creed. At the Synod (Council) of Rimini (359) the Latin bishops rejected the Arian concept and accepted the Nicene Creed, they canonically removed the Arian-minded bishops and wrote a letter to the Emperor Constantius. After the Emperor did not approve their attitude, under pressure from his envoys, they changed their mind and adopted a pro-Arian profession of faith. Pro-Arian tendencies also won at the Synod (Council) of Seleucia (359). The staun-chly Arian option won at the Synod (Council) of Constantinople (360). However, the Synod (Council) convoked in Paris by Hilary of Poitiers (361) decidedly rejected the Arian views and approved the Nicene Creed. Consequently, and similarly to the Synod of Sardica (343-344), a split according to language zones became evident: the Greek bishops were in favour of Arianism, and the Latin ones were in favour of the Nicene Creed. It was only at the Council of Constantinople (381) that a definitive sett-lement was achieved – the Nicene concept was adopted according to which the Son is consubstantial with the Father.
The Paschal Mystery of Christ made present in the sacramental liturgy is a model of spiritual growth of Christians on the way of purification, illumination, and unificati-on. The transition (Passover) of Christ from death to life is a model of a Christian way. Christians live in connection with the paschal mystery every day when they strive to do what is more perfect and when they express the newness of life in the performance of good deeds. The participation in the transition of Christ through death to a new life consists in abandoning the way of life of a sinful man and striving for deeds of a man renewed in the mystery of Christ’s death and His glorious resurrection. Faith received at baptism enables a man to participate in the paschal mystery of Christ and offers a participation in the resurrection of the Son of God. The union with Christ and remai-ning in Him is the participation in the sacrifice of the Savior according to the paschal theology. The Passover is an event that brightens with its splendor not only the life of the individual Christian, but also the whole history of mankind. The final fulfillment in Christ is the purpose of the whole universe.
A danger of falling into the trap of the naturalistic fallacy seems to unambiguously exclude bodiliness from the search for moral norms . But is it really true that there is no role for the body to play when the intellect occupies itself with formulating moral norms? Undoubtedly the body constitutes – in a sense – the basis of morality, since human freedom can exist only as freedom incarnate. It would be equally difficult to deny that the body constitutes boundaries for morality. Bodiliness may significantly restrain cognitive abilities of men; but it may also reduce their capabilities to fulfill their moral obligations. A major controversy arises over the issue whether the body can influence the content of moral norms. Even if one accepts the validity of the thesis of an intransgressible boundary between the world of facts and the world of values, there is no doubt that man never experiences his body in the same way as he does other material objects. An experience of one’s own body matters significantly in ethical reflection.
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